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By Ajnadin Mustafa.
Tripoli, 24 March 2016:
Wirshefana forces are reported to have closed the circuitous back road via Bir Ghanem and Aziziya . . .[restrict]being used by Zawia residents in safety to drive to Tripoli. They are also alleged to have seized a number of Zawians.
It follows fighting yesterday in Tuibah, west of Janzour, between the Wirshefana and a brigade controlled by Zawia’s powerful Islamist commander Abu Obeida Al-Zawi. It is said to have started when Abu Obeida’s men moved to take over positions in Taibah, on the coastal road, ostensibly to end kidnappings and open it up, but then met resistance from local Wirshefana forces.
The fighting has now died down, but there are reports that 11 men died in the clashes, several of them today in Zahra hospital, as a result of their wounds. Among those reported killed was one of Al-Zwai’s commanders, named as Munder Al-Bishti.
Meanwhile, the separate clashes between the powerful Khadrawi and Ahneish families in central Zawia have again continued today with more residents leaving for safety. Wissam Al-Khadrawi, the brother of the leader of the Khadrawi militia, was wounded in fighting today but his condition is said not to be life-threatening.
The two families, controlling adjoining areas of the town with their own militias, have been locked in a longstanding rivalry that even before the latest deadly flare-up over the killing of a young Moroccan women involved with two men – one from either family – looked distinctly like a local version of the story of Verona’s Montagues and Capulets. [/restrict]
